6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 1.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Max Simkin repairs shoes in the same New York shop that has been in his family for generations. Disenchanted with the grind of daily life, Max stumbles upon a magical heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers and see the world in a new way.
Starring: Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi, Dustin Hoffman, Method Man, Ellen BarkinComedy | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The Cobbler stars Adam Sandler, but it isn't an Adam Sandler movie. Every so often, Sandler takes a break from the juvenile comedies that have been his bread and butter and turns himself over to a writer/director who wants something from him beyond the familiar persona that hasn't significantly changed since Sandler's days on Saturday Night Live. Paul Thomas Anderson made him an unlikely romantic lead in Punch-Drunk Love. Mike Binder made him a vessel of grief in Reign Over Me. In The Cobbler, Tom McCarthy tries to make Sandler . . . well, that's the problem. McCarthy has always been willing to take risks. By his own account, he begins scripts with a simple idea and lets a story develop organically, without knowing in advance where it will lead him or where it may end. The results have often been striking in their originality. The Station Agent introduced the world to Peter Dinklage, now famous as Game of Thrones' Tyrion Lannister. The Visitor gave the first leading role (and an Oscar nomination) to Richard Jenkins, one of the finest supporting actors working today. Win Win provided Paul Giamatti an unusually complex character to which he could apply his talents for nuance. But risk-taking also means accepting the possibility of failure, and The Cobbler doesn't work. It's a quirky fairy tale that, while never boring, lacks the larger dimension that gives fairy tales their resonance. The adventures of Sandler's character, a sad and lonely shoemaker who acquires magical powers, don't lead anywhere. As much as McCarthy and a talented cast labor to make The Cobbler's events feel enlightening and significant, they would almost be more suitable as a sinister episode of The Twilight Zone.
The Cobbler was shot by W. Mott Hupfel III (The Savages and The Notorious Bettie Page). Based on equipment glimpsed in the behind-the-scenes featurette, the film was shot digitally. Post-production was completed on a digital intermediate, from which Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced by a direct digital path. As is common with digitally originated projects, the Blu-ray image is clean, detailed and sharp without noise or interference. Colors are naturalistic, with the exception of the prologue set in 1903, which has been given a dark brown tint to suggest old photographs (or, perhaps, faded memories). Black levels and contrast appear to be accurate. Image has mastered The Cobbler with an average bitrate of 19.996 Mbps, which isn't especially generous but is adequate for digitally acquired material without major sequences of complex action. No artifacts were in evidence.
The Cobbler's original 5.1 soundtrack is encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. The mix is filled with understated effects specific to various environments such as Max's shop, Ludlow's various hangouts, the protest outside Mr. Solomon's building and Elaine Greenawalt's suburban home. There isn't any gunplay, but several vehicular mishaps register forcefully. Dialogue is always clear, and the ethnically jaunty score by John Debney (Sin City) and Nick Urata (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) was clearly designed to keep the mood light, even when events get serious.
I wish The Cobbler were better, because Sandler himself gives a convincing performance as Max, and the supporting cast, especially Method Man, is impressive in portraying Max in the various guises he adopts by putting on other people's shoes. It's a cliche to talk about special effects overwhelming the story in today's big-budget films, but The Cobbler may be the first example of a film where a character overwhelms the story, because of the technical challenge of distributing that character among so many cast members. Rent if you're curious.
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25th Anniversary Edition | Remastered
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